Recently I have gotten really interested in graphic designing. I have never done this before, or even know what software to use. I'm sure I could figure out how to work with the software, but tips and secrets would be useful. Another thing is, what is the best software to use? Free would be nice, as I don't currently have a PayPal. ( just never got around to It I guess) help appreciated!!

Photoshop is great, but ridiculously expensive. I think you can get it for a discount if you're a student, though. If you have a Mac, there's a free program called Gimp that I use mostly for picture editing, but it looks like it does a lot of the same things as Photoshop (though I used Photoshop for years but never tapped its full potential because with what I used it for, I just didn't need a lot of its functions). So for me, Gimp pretty much does everything that I used Photoshop for, and it's free.
I'm not a graphic designer, though. I just do it for fun, so there may be more software out there better suited for just graphic design.

GIMP can be used on either Mac or a PC, doesn't matter because I've got GIMP on here and that's what I use. There's also a free version of Paint SAI out there somewhere too which I have yet to find ^_^

Sometimes you can get great deals on older versions of PS that don't have all the bells and whistles but work just as well! Like CS4 and CS5 right now are still really good programs. And also not sure about the difference if there is any in regular digital programs and graphic designing programs.